persons. The first private
exhibition of gladiators was given at a funeral in 264 B. C., and the
first wild beast hunt in 186 B. C. These types of exhibitions soon became
the most popular of all and exercised a brutalizing effect upon the
spectators.

*The city Rome.* The growth of Rome in population and wealth brought about
a corresponding change in the appearance of the city. Tenement houses of
several stories and high rentals reflected the influx into the capital.
Public buildings began to be erected on a large scale. The Circus
Flaminius dates from the end of the third century, and several basilicas
or large public halls, suitable as places for transacting business or
conducting judicial hearings, were erected by 169 B. C. A new stone bridge
was built across the Tiber, a quay to facilitate the unloading of ships
was constructed on the bank of the river, a third aqueduct brought into
the city, and stone paving laid on many streets. Many temples were
erected, adorned with votive offerings, mainly spoils of war from Greek
cities. But no native art or architecture arose that was worthy of the
imperial position of Rome.

CHAPTER XII

THE STRUGGLE OF THE OPTIMATES AND THE POPULARES: 133-78 B. C.

*Civil war and imperial expansion.* The century which began with the year
133 B. C. is characterized by a condition of perpetual factional strife
within the Roman state; strife which frequently blazed forth into civil
war and which culminated in the fall of the republican system of
government.

The question at issue was the right of the Senate to direct the policy of
Rome, and this right was challenged by the tribunate and the Assembly of
Tribes, by the equestrian order, and by the great military leaders who
appeared in the course of civil and foreign wars.

For in spite of these unceasing internal disorders this century marks an
imperial expansion which rivalled that of the era of the Punic and
Macedonian Wars. In Gaul the Roman sway was extended to the Rhine and the
Ocean; in the east practically the whole peninsula of Asia Minor, as well
as Syria and Egypt, was incorporated in the Empire. With the exception of
Mauretania (i. e. modern Morocco, which was really a Roman dependency) the
Roman provinces completely encircled the Mediterranean.

At the same time a new Italian nation was created by the admission to
Roman citizenship of all the peoples dwelling in Italy south of th